1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a fountain cleaning device, particularly adapted for hand-washing articles including vehicles, windows, bathtubs and numerous other surfaces.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Cleaning activities in homes or businesses commonly require that a surface is scrubbed with a liquid cleaning agent then followed by water rinse.
A typical example is hand-washing an automobile. In an "old" way, a piece of sponge or cloth soaked in a bucket filled with soap and water was used to scrub the car, then a garden hose to rinse it out. Since the sponge is saturated with suds on every dip inside the bucket, the natural compressive action generated during the scrubbing movements tends to release too much cleaning solution from the sponge at one time and hence increase the repeated needs of dipping the sponge in the bucket during the car wash. Also, the operator's entire hand is inevitably in contact with the cleaning solution used during the wash, thus may subject to some undesirable effects on the skin of the operating hand, such as becoming over-dry or rough.
Over the years, hand-held washing devices, many coupled with water supply through an ordinary garden hose as their suds dispensing means, have been proposed, such as disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,070,826 to Paterno (1963), to Kundel U.S. Pat. No. 1,655,375 (1928) and to Cheron U.S. Pat. No. 1,676,857 (19280, which all show this type of arrangement.
However, due to the garden hose attachment while in use, this type of devices is clumsy to operate as a hand-held cleaning tool, even though it minimizes the need of the operator's hand being in contact with the cleaning solution during the wash. In addition, it uses much more detergent than a car wash really needs.
The U.S. Pat. No. 2,932,840 to Lathrop (1960) describes a fountain cleaning device with a "squeeze bottle" type of arrangement to clean upholstery. But this assembly is not suitable for washing automobiles or for many other applications partly because the "squeeze bottle"--type design is not capable of dispensing its content continuously as the device is less than full and is held in the positions of between vertical and upside down. The device, as filled with a cleaning solution, could drip during storage or in idle during cleaning due to its open perforations in its chamber wall. In addition, since the "squeeze bottle", also designed to be used as an elongated handle, has limited liquid capacity, and it needs frequent refill during cleaning, or the handle has to be made too big for an operator's hand to grasp.
Bernard U.S. Pat. No. 3,960,294 (1976) illustrates a liquid applicator-type dispenser with a compressible bag arrangement, which is tedious to set up, of too many component parts, and relatively expensive to manufacture.
For the lack of a better and portable device, the "old" way of automobile wash as mentioned is still found in widespread use.